The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1887-02-11
The Farth's Interior.

..rIking about earthquakes. said
Pro Vau BenlhusrI. calls to u,ir d
a. stluH. which ~'nudiug alone IS of
s.agtuug sianbctur. '" he people of
this continent. l. I~',..r hat has been
under discussion for many years, hu' |
p-Iievt that the Isrui,.. "a WAS solved at
fh- time the shuck occurred in 1854
Thr par;icnlar pI.c, where that earth
quake originated afford> little room for
speculation. The Uj.It TACT proved by
that shock was directly 20 The point that
th,. interior of the raIth is in a highly
he,ted state.
There are no facts 20 dispTove this
assumption. but many Ia support it, If
il is npt in fluid condition so largely AS
to interfere wI;h is rigidity, which is
c,duted equal to hall of steel, this is
sdId 10 be because Of ihe great weight
vi h which the exterior presses to wards
the center. Notwithstanding the facts
already mrntioned. Il cooling process is
steadily going on. Grologists claim il
has required twenty-five millions of
ytaIs TO acquire its present external
form of soiidi.y. and that during this
/ period the mountains we're formed and
/ the hullUws of the seas made by sort
of wrirkIing of the surface as the globe
J of iiquid fiUe and heated gases contracted
TO its present shape. According TO this
| idea, the solid crust of the earth extends
down from ten To forty miles, there be-
ing beneath that Il greater or less thick
ness of plastic material, from melted
rock, etc., under high pressure, while
the crust of the earth is ali the time in
high state of tension, from the gradual
cooling of the interior, causing cavities,
and allowing the superintendent earth
TO crowd down closer to It's heated core.
Another theory is that the access of
water, hy pei collation. through the sur
face of the earth, to these subterTaneous
ovens, II is thought, may IN some cases
cause explosions, disIocating vast quan-
titles of material, and perhaps by open
ing communication with the still hotter
PORTION yet lower down, be the cause of
the most destructive volcanoes.
"These explanations, while being to a
small extent hypothetical, accord with
all that is known by acknowledged au-
thoritIes. Another significant fact is
that they afford the best theory yet ad-
vanced to account for the Charleston
earthquake, which has agitated the
minds of people all over the GLOBE
! The geolOgist, waxing warm to his
subject. insisted that We have hardly
made a pin-scTatch upon the crust of the
earth. The further we go down the
warmer it Is. An Illustration of this
is supplied in the fact that the artesian
wells supplying the city of Paris from
d eth Of nearly eighteen hundred feet
yield water of eighty-:wO degrees Fab
Tenheit, and the lower levels of the Com.
stock mines have almost Uniform TEN
peraiu ure of one hundred degrees Fab.
renheit.
1T is estimated the heat increases
at the rate of one degree for every fifty
feet, and This would give temperature
to melt the hardest rocks in less than
ten miles. On this theory the present
volcanic and earth quake regions of the
globe are located along the axis of those
supposed wrinkles OF corrugations from
the contraction Of the crus., thought to
be at present in the state Of greatest
tension. The most marked of these are
down the east coast of Asia, including
the japan and Philippine islands, and
extending to Java, where the great
earthquake of 1888 occ urred. Another
also extends down the Pacific coast OF
North and South America, the NANTES.
tatlOns of which have been very light in
the northern part since the commence
ment Of historic times, but OF whose
presence in South America we have had
u any striking evidences.